Deaths of domiciliary care service users

The request was partially successful.

Good afternoon,

I hope you are well. Could you please treat my request for the information below as a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Please could you provide:

1a. The number of total deaths notified to the council amongst home care (domiciliary care) service users, by the day or month of notification (whichever is easier), between 01 April 2017 and 28 February 2021.

1b. For the total number of deaths referenced in Question 1a, could you provide an age breakdown under the following categories: Under 18, 18-64, 65+.

2a. The number of deaths notified to the council, involving Covid-19 amongst home care (domiciliary care) service users, by the day or month of notification (whichever is easier) since records began in 2020 until 28 February 2021.

2b. For the total number of deaths referenced in Question 2a, could you state how many people died as a result of confirmed Covid-19, suspected Covid-19, and did not die of Covid-19.

If possible, please also include the following:

3. The total number of people using local authority purchased domiciliary care services, for the tax years - 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 to date.

4. The total number of local authority-purchased hours for domiciliary care services, for the tax years - 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 to date.

5. A list of your current home care (domiciliary care) providers.

In the spirit of Section 16 of the FOI Act — to “provide advice and assistance, so far as it would be reasonable to expect the authority to do so, to persons who propose to make, or have made requests for information” — if you cannot answer all of these questions, please contact me to discuss what information you could supply at the earliest opportunity by emailing: [email address].

If you feel you cannot provide all of this information, please provide the information you can.

Please could you acknowledge this FOI request by reply with a reference on receipt AND could the information be forwarded by email in an Excel (xls) document and not a PDF.

I look forward to hearing from you promptly, and at any rate, within the statutory time limit of 20 working days from your receipt of this email.

Whilst writing, I take this opportunity to remind you of the Information Commissioner's public statements, in which he has stated that there is a "presumption of disclosure" under FOI.

Please note that if this request for FOI disclosure is refused, I reserve the right to take up the matter with the Information Commissioner and/or to pursue all legal avenues of appeal.

Thank you in advance for your time.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Gayle

Solicitor - Freedom of Information, Sunderland City Council

Re: Your request for information concerning:

Deaths of domiciliary care service users

The Council aims to provide available information promptly and in any event within 20 working days, unless, exceptionally, there is a need to consider whether the information is exempt from disclosure.

I will contact you again soon in connection with your request.

Please quote the reference below if you contact the Council regarding this request.

Customer Request Number: FOI_3449

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OCEFOI, Sunderland City Council

2 Attachments

Dear Gareth Davies,

 

I refer to your recent request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. I can confirm that the Council does hold this
information, as detailed below.

 

Please could you provide:

 

1a. The number of total deaths notified to the council amongst home care
(domiciliary care) service users, by the day or month of notification
(whichever is easier), between 01 April 2017 and 28 February 2021.

Please see attached spreadsheet.

 

1b. For the total number of deaths referenced in Question 1a, could you
provide an age breakdown under the following categories: Under 18, 18-64,
65+.

18 to 64 = 64

65 & over = 860

 

2a. The number of deaths notified to the council, involving Covid-19
amongst home care (domiciliary care) service users, by the day or month of
notification (whichever is easier) since records began in 2020 until 28
February 2021.

The Council does not hold this information.

 

2b. For the total number of deaths referenced in Question 2a, could you
state how many people died as a result of confirmed Covid-19, suspected
Covid-19, and did not die of Covid-19.

The Council does not hold this information.

 

If possible, please also include the following:

 

3. The total number of people using local authority purchased domiciliary
care services, for the tax years - 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21
to date.

2017/18 = 2193

2018/19 = 2093

2019/20 = 2165

2020/21 = 2592 (to 28 Feb 2021)

 

4. The total number of local authority-purchased hours for domiciliary
care services, for the tax years - 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21
to date.

2017/18 = 1,092,500

2018/19 = 1,048,000

2019/20 = 1,038,500

2020/21 = 930,000 (to 28 Feb 2021)

NB based on assessed hours

 

Excludes 100% health funded packages, short term home care packages and
supported living schemes From 19/3/2020 figures include packages funded
via Covid/Treasury funds

 

5. A list of your current home care (domiciliary care) providers.

Please see below:

 

Contracted providers

Comfort Call – Sunderland

Hetton Home Care

City Care

Sunderland Home Care Associates

Care @ Home

Westhome

Allied

 

None Contracted providers

 

Thorncliffe Home Care

Bluebird

Diamond Home Care

North Haven

Routes

 

This information has been provided in response to a Freedom of Information
request and this must be acknowledged in any subsequent use of the
information. In addition, the authority must be notified of any proposed
re-use of this information for commercial or other purposes.

 

I hope this is satisfactory. If, however, you are dissatisfied with our
response to your request for information, you can ask for the decision to
be reviewed in reply to this letter, however any request for review must
be submitted within 40 days of the date of this freedom of information
response. The review will be removed from the Directorate and coordinated
by the Council’s team of Solicitors. A request for review should be
directed, by email to [1][Sunderland City Council request email] by post or
by hand addressed to Business Support, Sunderland City Council, Civic
Centre, Burdon Road, Sunderland. SR2 7DN.

 

If this fails to resolve your concerns, then you have the right to apply
to the Information Commissioner for a decision.

 

Kind Regards

 

 

Steve Hanratty

Business Manager

Economic Regeneration

City Development Directorate

Sunderland City Council

Tel: 0191 5617808

[2]www.sunderland.gov.uk

 

 

 

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Dear OCEFOI,
I hope you're well and thank you for your reply, which I've inputted most of, but I have to apologise because I suspect my wording to question 1b has caused confusion. I was still hoping to get an annual breakdown for the ages of those who have died rather than across four years as a whole, so what you'd provide is:

Deaths age 18-64; Deaths age 65+; Total deaths
2017/18
2018/19
2019/20
2020/21

I hope it won't take too much extra time to do so, but it's quite important for us to have this.

Thanks so far for your efforts and time.

Kind regards,
Vicky Gayle

OCEFOI, Sunderland City Council

Good afternoon Vicky Gayle,

I am writing to advise that I will get this logged as a new FOI

Kind regards
Angela

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Solicitor - Freedom of Information, Sunderland City Council

Re: Your request for information concerning:

DEATHS OF DOMICILIARY CARE USERS

The Council aims to provide available information promptly and in any event within 20 working days, unless, exceptionally, there is a need to consider whether the information is exempt from disclosure.

I will contact you again soon in connection with your request.

Please quote the reference below if you contact the Council regarding this request.

Customer Request Number: FOI_3603

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Hi there,

Is there no possibility of resending the information without logging it as a new FOI because it relates to the same enquiry and I'm not asking for new information, it's just that there was a misunderstanding of what was being requested initially? I appreciate FOI teams are very busy, but the majority of the data your team needs is there already to fulfil this request.

I look forward to hearing from you again.

Kind regards,
Vicky Gayle

OCEFOI, Sunderland City Council

Hi Vicky,

I will ask officers to respond. As you may have already received an email saying this has now been logged are you happy if I withdraw this?

Regards Angela

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OCEFOI, Sunderland City Council

2 Attachments

Good morning Vicky,

 

Following on from the email below, please see below the information you
require:

 

Deaths age 18-64; Deaths age 65+; Total deaths

 

2017/18 = 208 (18 to 64 = 19, 65 & over = 189)

2018/19 = 175 (18 to 64 = 6, 65 & over = 169)

2019/20 = 188 (18 to 64 = 12, 65 & over = 176)

2020/21 = 353 (18 to 64 = 27, 65 & over = 326)

 

Please note that this will also close down the new FOI (FOI 3603).

 

This information has been provided in response to a Freedom of Information
request and this must be acknowledged in any subsequent use of the
information. In addition, the authority must be notified of any proposed
re-use of this information for commercial or other purposes.

 

I hope this is satisfactory. If, however, you are dissatisfied with our
response to your request for information, you can ask for the decision to
be reviewed in reply to this letter, however any request for review must
be submitted within 40 days of the date of this freedom of information
response. The review will be removed from the Directorate and coordinated
by the Council’s team of Solicitors. A request for review should be
directed, by email to [1][Sunderland City Council request email] by post or
by hand addressed to Business Support, Sunderland City Council, Civic
Centre, Burdon Road, Sunderland. SR2 7DN.

 

If this fails to resolve your concerns, then you have the right to apply
to the Information Commissioner for a decision.

 

Kind Regards

Angela

 

 

Angela Miller

Compliance Officer

City Development Directorate

Sunderland City Council

Tel: (0191) 561 7567

Email: [2][email address]

 

[3]oce20902 Supporting Equality Logo Colour

 

[4]www.sunderland.gov.uk

 

 

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Dear Angela,

I appreciate you doing that without a new FOI, thank you.

Many thanks,
Vicky Gayle